Puppy-Win32-Installer makes it very easy to distribute a Puppy derivative to Windows users as a single file they can click on to install, or uninstall with their Windows 'Add or Remove Programs utility'. The install supports the installation of multiple Puppies, as well as their individual removal.
Your Puppy will be installable on Windows 98, 2000, and XP.

The advantages for Windows users are numerous.
No ISO to burn.
The install does not modify the master boot record of a hard drive.
Grub is not installed to the MBR.
It is a frugal install compatible with SFS files.
Easy Puppy system backup, copy the pup_save file.
No CD or USB required to boot.
User can remove the installs from their drive and even remove the Grub boot screen so their computer boots straight into Windows again.

System requirements for Puppy-Win32-Installer build environment.
Puppy or other Linux, or Windows 32 bit OS.
Wine, if using Linux.
Free disk space (or pup_save space) equal to 3 times the size of the Puppy derivative to be packaged.

The Puppy to be distributed must support installation to a directory: Puppy 3 series or newer.

Thanks go to Brian Grainger for developing the Lin'N'Win install method.
Lin'N'WinNewB Project
This installer uses the Lin'N'WinNewB Project method as the basis for installing, but is not associated with the Lin'N'WinNewB Project or Puppy Linux in any manner.

Seeker

Edit: July 5 2009
The original template file pup-inst-tpl had an incorrect path. If you downloaded before today please download it again to get the correct one.
.

Congratulations Seeker on this new release! It really has made it EASY to switch so there really is no excuse!

May I suggest www.download.com or some windows sites for posting the resulting .exe files, or pm me and I would be happy to mirror. I would love to get my hands on one of those .exe's so I can send links to my Linux-uninitiated friends.

A windows installer for the Puppy 4.2.1 release would also to handy to offer as a download from www.puppylinux.org_________________Puppy Linux's Mission

Seeker some great work here! How possible would it be to include an .exe on a Puppy CD that would install under windows (perhaps linked from an "autorun.inf" file that runs when the cd is inserted in a Windows PC). Would this take up much space if the installer used the pup_xxx.sfs/initrd.gz/vmlinuz files from the CD itself?

I had forgotten what a pain Windows is to install...perhaps Puppy does actually meet its primary mission objective after all!_________________Puppy Linux's Mission

﻿How possible would it be to include an .exe on a Puppy CD that would install under windows (perhaps linked from an "autorun.inf" file that runs when the cd is inserted in a Windows PC). Would this take up much space if the installer used the pup_xxx.sfs/initrd.gz/vmlinuz files from the CD itself?

I've given this some thought for a couple of weeks now and I think it would be very easy to do. The install.exe and autorun.inf file amount to 753 KB. A small front end for the installer that would ask the user if they wanted to install now, or later, and some code to copy the files from the CD/DVD would be needed. That would add about 40 KB more.

So were talking about 0.8mb in total to enable Puppy Linux to be tried alongside and its speed/technical superiority compared on Windows on 63.5% of desktop computers in the world....92% if you get vista support added.

Given that statistic, and the fact that Puppy should "install easily onto hard drive media" as well as "be friendly to Linux Newbies", no one could possibly object to having an .exe included on the Puppy Linux CD?

﻿So were talking about 0.8mb in total to enable Puppy Linux to be tried alongside and its speed/technical superiority compared on Windows on 63.5% of desktop computers in the world

Well, the whole point of my Puppy-Win32 installer is to enable a Puppy to be safely installed and uninstalled like a regular Windows application, without having to burn a bootable CD etc.

That being said, if all you wanted to do was to frugal install from the CD to a pre-defined directory and set up a GRUB4DOS boot menu, I believe the files could be less than 200KB. Maybe even in the neighborhood of 100 KB. You would lose the Windows uninstall ability but you could still provide a means to uninstall, with safety checks, from the CD too. BTW these sizes do not include the grldr and grub.exe. Those add about 450KB.

Quote:

﻿...92% if you get vista support added.

Sure, I would like to add Vista support. To even begin to do this I would need the active cooperation of someone with a Vista OS.
Any volunteers?

This is the one time that its possible to use Windows to Promote Linux. Ive got a Dual Core Behomoth that was donated by the Seamans Mission that given another gig of RAM would probably run Vista adequately (it "only" has 1gb).

I will have to get hold of a copy, will let you know when I have._________________Puppy Linux's Mission

Thanks for the support and input. After spending a good deal of time researching this my inclination is to pass on Vista. Too many hurdles and pitfalls for me.

Sometimes I get the feeling that MS is going out of it's way to put up road blocks for the average Joe wanting to contaminate their computers with another OS. The good news is a Puppy CD can clean a system that's contaminated with Vista.

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